Lisa, It's always a good idea to secure your mixer to whatever it sits on. For older mixers we bolt them to the table or floor. We use a Anti Vibration Pad between the leg and table. Forget the name, but we get them at Grainger. Most motors are designed to perform in a level and balanced place. Any movement,vibration or wobble is horrible on motors. It creates slack internally and will usually cut it's life span in half.

I'm not sure but I assume new mixers have some type of built in anti vibration mechanism. Cheap ones probably won't. Something to check before buying.

I'm not recommending but I have been a fan of Doyon equipment for years. They do all their manufacturing in house. They are known for their ovens. They developed a Jet-Air system on the fans in their ovens which automatically reverses the fan every couple of minutes. Makes the oven free of any hot spots.

They also manufacture mixers. Years back I visited the manufacturing facility. So impressed I stay in contact. I do know on their newer mixers they make a heavy duty torque transmission that basically eliminates any vibration.

Compared to others on the market they usually have much more additional horse power and 20 speed transmissions. That allows you to switch gears while engaged. You can get specific speeds for formulas. They are usually priced as others in the market but of course not as high as Hobart. Personally I feel they are far more superior to comparable brands. "Just me though".

There's usually one or two reps per states. Parts are no problem. Wouldn't know who sells them in your area. I think they are something to look into when shopping.

Hobart's boast is on reputation alone. Motors have been basically the same for years. I think they redesign for increased income on replacement parts. They seem to add appendix's. Parts that are not really needed for basic motor function. They break, and are very expensive to buy and have installed.

For larger mixers, I buy used 3 phase. They are quite cheaper here in the states. I have only single phase coming in, but use a converter as long as it's not stress mixing like breads.

Thank you for responding. The 30 quart has a 2.5 HP which is higher than most. On Doyon website they list all the shows they attend (IBIE) and you cant have crappy products and face your most important customers. well you can but...

We have 4 Hobarts 140?180? quart and one 60 Quart but they are old and yes "heavy duty" but if anything goes wrong its an 800 dollar day with the tech who fixes them. We welcome him for coming to the rescue but it gets pricey 5X a year.

Vibration is not the cause of the broken mixer-just people who are not careful moving them for cleaning/and changing location as well as the floor having a bump and overloading.

I also want to mention the 20 quart HOBART was dropped 3 times (190 lbs) before it finally died. I am grateful no one was hurt-this is a blessing really......so Im done complaining and whining.

I'm leaning toward ""Doyon"", I dont make bread dough so maybe it will last a while.

Do you think your "people" are going to take any better care of this new unit than they did of the Hobart?!? I didn't answer your original post because all I would buy would be a Hobart. YES, they may be expensive to fix. For $800/day, I'd find someone else. If treated properly however, I don't think anything beats a Hobart. That's why almost everyone has one. If the people abusing them are not the people using them ... I would have those people pay for the repairs. That's just me though.

Chef, I hear ya. I completely understand your thinking on Hobart. You're not alone and the Hobart supporters attribute to it's large market share.

That's why I never give recommendations. I'll only offer my own personal experiences.

For 40+ years I've always tried to do my due diligence when making decisions on equipment, product or services. I never ask for a recommendation, I'll always ask what someones experience has been in general, not specific brands. I always ask for any negative experiences.

I try to eliminate responses from someone who has only used one product.

A few years back I wanted to to see what the consulting side of the business was like. I wanted to have some sort of back up plan because as you know, it's common for Chefs/owners in this industry to mentally or physically burn out prematurely compared to other industries.

I left my Wife and Pastry Chef and hit the road. I was not one to sit in a hotel or motel on my down time. So I sought out and visited as many Food Service manufacturing companies I could find.

"This is just my opinion" The Hobart Co. was really the first to power/motorize food manufacturing equipment back in the 1900's. When they became established and grew, Mr.Hobart became the one to oversee instead of build. His start was in the repair business. Since then the company has been passed around like a 60's joint.Dart and Kraft, Premark, all basically the Illinois Tool Works Co. 'excuse the spelling'. When they spun off Kitchen Aid an entered the home consumer market, they became a household name. That's basically the reason I mentioned that a lot of Hobart supporters are there because of name recognition. Some have not experienced anything else.

As far as mixers, Hobart's competition is relatively young. I'm pretty sure they still manufacture Kitchen Aid here in the states, which I'm all for.

I find it interesting that their refurbishing facility was almost as big as their manufacturing facility. Not refurbishing old Kitchen Aids, they subbed that out, but machines less than 3 yrs. old. For me, it kinda says something. The product numbers are always changing but if you open a newer one and an older one, they're identical.

'Just me' I can't wrap my head around the idea that I can purchase 2 mixers made here in the states for the price of one Hobart made in China. I understand the concept of sourcing out manufacturing to greatly reduce cost, but then double the price? Not for me.

When I was consulting, Doyon was one of the manufacturing plants I toured. I have to say, I got a chance to see what it must have been like years gone by in a manufacturing plant. Every person I met had tenure. They were not happy to have a job, they were happy to be making their product.

They would stop and enthusiastically explain how they were installing a part but also told of how the idea for the part came about, how it was developed, tooled and tested right there in the plant. I was truly amazed. Everyone was just so proud of the product.

They were given ownership in their jobs, a concept I've always tried to do. I can't recall the name given to the person that had the responsibility to build and oversee each and every product, I'm not sure if it's still done, but to watch that person enter the finished oven and sign his name on it, inspired me. I said years gone by because I remember as a kid, If a person worked at the GM plant they would never ever think about buying an imported car.

Chef, I've owned my fair share of Hobarts. Good experiences and a few bad. I was actually able to repair most of the old ones.

In fact I've owned enough to gain some insight and that is why I mentioned securing and stabilizing any mixer even if it doesn't appear to be moving. I've sat on the floor with old repair men, looked at the motors totally disassembled while they explained the effects of vibration. It's not just mixers, it's all motors. Look at cars, there are more anti vibration parts then lights on them.

It was not my intention to bash Hobart, I just gave a personal negative experience and I thought I would post a positive one also.

What you might not know about Hobart is that they were one of the pioneers in bar code scanners and supermarket checkout systems back in the 70's, they also do a lot of electronic scales and scales/printers for the butchers.

I owned a Tiawanese 30qt clone back in the late 90's, gears were crap. I've been told by numerous bakery and food service mechanics that the quality has improved a lot since then. I know a lot of bakers and Chefs who have chinese/taiwanese clones who tell me that they have never had any issues with the mixers, other than abuse problems.

What I know abot Doyon is that they make ovens, in Lachine, Quebec, and going over their catalouge, that the other equipment like mixers and sheeters sure look like rebadged Asian models

Yea, I'm aware they've been Whirlpool for a while. I may be mistaken, but I think the manufacturing is still done here. I was also away about Hobart's grocery checkout. But that wasn't really

Hobart. All those things were launched out of a small town in NY called Armonk. I actually had a couple friends who were in on that stuff. It basically was incorporating technology. All that came from IBM.

They spun it off to Hobart from some other company. I can't recall the co. name but i wan't to say it was a subsidiary of IBM. Headquarters in Armonk. I only know this because way back when when I was in school, the so called bad or unruly kids (today ADD, ADHD,etc) were put on the short bus in the mornings and taken to a school that offered only two classes. Automotive training or this course called computer. Well, I had a lot of friends banished to the short bus. Turns out all the ones who took this obscure course called computer ended going straight to work for IBM. Most retired wealthy at 45-50 yrs. old. Who knew.

Hey are you aware of any Hobart manufacturing plants here in the US?

I'm aware of the knock offs, most all are knock offs of Hobarts. I'm confident in saying that Doyon mixers are not knock offs of Hobart. The major parts like the transmissions are light years ahead of Hobart and are far superior. I know what your saying about overall look. I wouldn't be surprised that when everything mixer went stainless they may have outsourced outer bodies instead of tooling them.

I will try to locate some exploded diagrams of both complete motors so we can compare.

Even vibration, the last I heard, all Hobart does is use anti vibration ball bearings on gears. Those are not even used on cars any more.

I was at some food show when Hobart was launching the shift fly? whatever they call it. Well this clown was demonstrating a 400 ,I think, and how this was a revolutionary feature. Well he went from one gear to another, I guess there is a feature that slows it down as not to splash when increasing. It still was basically set speeds.They might have a smoother transition now. Well it slowed down and when this guy threw it in a higher speed this thing started to have a seizure. Bangin, walking, the top plate broke apart and went flying,etc. It was more catastrophic than than a dragster throwing a piston which I've also witnessed close up.. There were actually people hitting the isle floor. I remember it like it was yesterday. All the reps just stared in amazement, one old rep just shook his head. The young rep actually ran. All hell broke loose. It was smoking so bad, the show staff was just going through one fire extinguisher after another. The only food show I have really enjoyed. You may have heard about it. I can't remember what city but I know it made the news because people started to hit fire alarms.